By the time Anna Kate had finished her story, Leia had somewhat softened. “Divorce is hard. But at least you found out what a jackass he was before you wasted any more time with him.”
Anna Kate waved away the support. “What happened to me is all in the past. And I’m a lot happier without him than I was with him. Just a fact of life.” She glanced over at Gemma as if remembering the woman was still in the room. “I was just about to mention to Gemma the connection I have to the Copelands. My older sister, Laura Leigh, used to babysit for Sandra and Todd. So naturally, when the family was laid to rest, Laura Leigh was there at the funeral. But she also went to the graveside service. And what do you think she saw there?”
Without waiting for a reply from either woman, Anna Kate went on, “Sandra’s sister, Jocelyn Trask, Jocelyn Williams now. She was there wearing Sandra’s best dress. Must’ve taken it right out of her closet before the service.”
“And you think Jocelyn wore that dress for spite?” Leia asked.
“Not me, but Laura Leigh did. She got the impression that Sandra and Jocelyn didn’t get along at all. So, it’s weird that Jocelyn would show up wearing Sandra’s favorite dress. Laura Leigh always talked about that scene at the cemetery. Which is why I’d think Lando would want to talk to Jocelyn. You know, she still lives in town, over on Shell Bay, in that big house near the park. For a good ten years or so after the murders, Laura Leigh used to talk about her own theories about who killed them. She was always bringing it up.”
Gemma’s curiosity got the better of her. “Who did she think did it?”
“Laura Leigh? Oh, she was convinced that Jocelyn had something to do with it all along. Right up until the day she died, Laura Leigh believed that. Those poor little girls were such sweet little things.”
Gemma frowned. “Wait. Your sister died? Laura Leigh died?”
“Oh, yeah. In a car accident out on the road leading to Moonlight Ridge.”
“When?”
“Let’s see. It’ll be ten years this June.”
Before Gemma could respond to the news, Anna Kate looked at her watch and grabbed her purse. “Girl, I gotta run. I have a million errands to do while the kids are in school. It was nice catching up. You guys should come over to the house one night for a girls’ night out. We could fix mojitos and talk about the old days.”
“That sounds great,” Leia said and seemed to mean it. “Stop in at the restaurant any time, and I’ll buy you a drink.”
After Anna Kate had gone, Gemma turned to Leia. “What was all that about not knowing she’d broken up with Derrick? You’re the one who told me about it when I came back to town.”
“Oh, that. I just wanted to see her squirm a little because she couldn’t remember Zeb’s name. That was so fake. She knew all along who Zeb is because he arrested Derrick several years back on the Rez for public intoxication. Derrick had lost big at the tables and was wandering around the casino parking lot. The guy ended up falling into a ditch. He was that drunk. Zeb is the one who arrested him and made him sleep it off in a cell. Derrick threatened to sue. Some BS about a false arrest or something. Anyway, divorce or not, Anna Kate’s probably still carrying around a grudge or two over the incident.”
“It didn’t look like that to me.”
“Oh, it never does,” Leia pointed out with a sigh. “You’re always so ready to look the other way if I’m being dissed.”
“Technically, Zeb’s the one who got dissed. Instead of standing here arguing about something that happened to Derrick years ago, why don’t you and I go out to the Copeland’s old house, take a look around?”
Leia looked mortified. “What on earth for? Why would you want to go to that murder house?”
“Murder house? I haven’t heard it called that in years. What could it hurt? I’d like to see where it happened.”
“Oh, come on, you’ve been out there before—last time probably fifteen years ago on Halloween. Remember when Fleet Barkley turned it into a haunted house? He bought cases and cases of beer.”
“I remember the party just getting started when Reiner Caulfield showed up and ran us all out of there.”